Wind Rider (Return of the Dragons 2)

Maybe he was right, but it felt good to hear Elias laugh. The boy was too serious for someone so young, and he had just experienced a great loss.

Then we were walking again, with Elias in the lead.

My hand fell to my sword and the energy flowed into the hilt. I heard a feminine voice then. Thank you Anders, and Woltan is right, be careful, but you did well for a first attempt. Next time, try when we are alone. Then the buzzing was gone, and I concentrated on walking. We were reaching a part of the city I had never seen before, and there was dirt beneath our feet. Then there were trees all around us, and I saw fruit and nut trees, and some that must have been just shade trees, with other plants growing beneath them. It was like a small orchard, and off in the distance I could see a field, which must have provided the wheat for our bread.

Suddenly Elias stopped. He wasn’t laughing now.

“This was one of my Aunt’s favorite places,” he said, his face impossible to read.

There was a moment of silence, and I wanted to say something, but there was nothing to say, nothing I could put into words. If there was anything I could have done to bring back Marga, I would have done it in a second. But here I was, and she was dead.

Karsten reached over and pulled his cousin into a bear hug, and then he let him go.

Elias took something out of his pocket then. “In my Aunt’s memory, I plant a seed.”

He kneeled down, and made a small hole in the ground. He dropped the seed in the center of the hole. Then he stood up and stepped aside. Karsten kneeled then, and picked up some dirt, and dropped it in the hole. He stepped aside. Then one by one, everyone in our group dropped earth into the hole. When we all had taken a turn, Elias and Karsten kneeled and patted the earth down with their bare hands.

They stood up then, and without a word, Elias started to walk again.

I wanted to call him back.

I wanted to plant a seed, too.

But I didn’t have a seed, and besides, my parents weren’t dead, not really.

Although they might as well have been. No, that was wrong thinking. If only I was a real wizard, I would know what to do, to counter their spell.

I hurried after the others. We were entering what could only be wild forest, and there were vines and thorny bushes everywhere, which had either been there before the wall or somehow crossed it, and we all pulled out our knifes, and swords, and hacked our way through the path, following our boy leader; Elias, for his part, just ducked and twisted his way around the obstacles.

Soon my arms were aching, and my face was scratched and bleeding. But just ahead, through some brambles, was the wall. There was nothing particular about its smooth surface, besides that it was covered with vines. But when I looked with my third eye I saw runes, in the shape of a small doorway. It was much smaller than a gate. The doorway was hardly bigger than Elias. I would have to duck, and some of the others, like the smith, would probably have to double over.

“Where are we going, Elias?” Karsten asked.

Elias pointed to the doorway. “It’s right here. We need to clear away all this ivy.”

Woltan shook his head. “Leave the ivy where it is. Just touch the runes and open it. We need to hurry, and the less disturbed we leave this, the better.”

Elias nodded. He seemed lost in thought, his eyes unfocused, and then he was reaching up, through the leaves, and tracing runes, and I felt my own eyes unfocus, as I followed Elias’s glowing fingers. I could see what he was doing — he was telling the gate to open, but the thing was old, and then the runes were glowing and the doorway was glowing, but it did not open. Elias stood staring at it, and I watched him, and the runes were starting to fade again. I could use some help, Anders.

I leaned forward and made the same series of runes as Elias. Now the door was glowing fiercely. Touch my arm, Elias, while I touch the door. Elias touched my arm and strength flowed into me, and then I held my hand up to the middle of the door.

There was a burst of song, and then the door opened.

“We must hurry!” Woltan shouted, and then we were all rushing through the hanging vines, though the door. Kara went first, with Elias behind her, then Karsten, then the smith. Woltan followed him, and then I was last. The wall was several feet thick, and with such a small doorway it seemed almost like a tunnel. Where the rock that had filled it now was anyone’s guess, but I did not want to imagine what it would feel like if the rock came crashing back while we were in there. At the end of the tunnel the sunlight shone through a bunch of vines that we had to pry our way through. The smith took out his knife but Woltan whispered. “No! We must alert no one to the gate here!”

Then I too was through, looking back at the tunnel behind me.

Before I could even wonder how to close it, it was gone. I looked at the wall with my third eye and there was nothing.

“Elias? Where is it?”

Elias shook his head. “It’s a one-way gate.”

Woltan turned to him. “What? A one-way gate?”

Elias nodded. “A prince used it, long ago, to get away without detection.”

“And when the prince wanted to get back?” Kara asked.